The International Cricket Thread

[KNVillan]

77-0 at the close….all set for a interesting day of cricket tomorrow. 291 runs required for England, 10 wickets for India

[olaftab]

Yes good knock from the openers and they need to stay there for at least 15 overs tomorrow. Best way is to forget these 77 runs and start again  in the morning to build another partnership.

[Steve67]

291 is too many to get in a day I feel.  Would need a one-day Malan at his best type innings to win this. 

[Chris Smith]

291 is too many to get in a day I feel.  Would need a one-day Malan at his best type innings to win this. 

Probably, but if we get to tea with enough wickets in hand it might get interesting.

[PaulWinch again]

Fair play to the openers cracking effort. They need to keep it going in the morning.

[paul_e]

291 is too many to get in a day I feel.  Would need a one-day Malan at his best type innings to win this. 

It's only just over 3 an over, given it's supposed to be clear weather tomorrow keeping wickets in hand is the bigger issue, if we're still in the middle with wickets in hand after tea overs/time won't be a problem.

[Lastfootstamper]

Yeah, concentrate on simply batting out the day, and we shouldn't be too far off the total.

Bit annoyed I've got work tomorrow. It's when Test cricket's at its best, all results possible, some more likely than others, doggedness will triumph, be it from batters or bowlers.

Watch it be a damp squib now, all over by lunch.

[PaulWinch again]

Annoying time for Burns to get out. We don’t want to give India a sniff.

[paul_e]

Annoying time for Burns to get out. We don’t want to give India a sniff.

It is but 3-4 more 50s (including the Hameed one that is already delivered) will go a long way to flipping the pressure on to them.

I love the stat on BBC just though, that Burns wicket means this is the first time that someone has been dismissed for exactly 50 in every innings of a test.

[UK Redsox]

I haven't had the radio on for a while, but that sounds like a Zaltz stat

[paul_e]

I haven't had the radio on for a while, but that sounds like a Zaltz stat

Of course it is.

Malan gone with a run out, that's really poor.

[Meanwood Villa]

Who was at fault for the run out would you say? Good fielding to be fair, particularly compared to our muffed attempts yesterday

[PaulWinch again]

I’m going with Hameed’s fault. It was too tight, risk versus reward wasn’t right.

[Meanwood Villa]

Still in the balance here. Tense stuff.

[paul_e]

I’m going with Hameed’s fault. It was too tight, risk versus reward wasn’t right.

I'd say both, there was enough time for them to get through if both had been looking for it but Malan was on his heels, Hameed should've recognised that and stopped but Malan should've been aware enough to either run as soon as Hameed did or send him back. Was just poor all round.

All that said I prefer Hameed and Root as a pair to see out 20-30 overs than Hameed and Malan so I don't think the wicket makes that big a difference. If these 2 can build a partnership then the chances of us losing go down every over.